Wil McCarthy
wmccarth@sprynet.com
http://www.sff.net/people/wmccarth
GAS GIANT:
Book one of The Blue Star Plague
A Novel Proposal
by
Wil McCarthy
BACKGROUND:
The
alien Waisters, after initiating and then breaking off an extermination
campaign against the six star systems then inhabited by the human race, have
returned to the double-sunned Sirius Gate system for a detente of sorts,
dropping ominous hints of a "Blue Star Plague" which threatens the
galaxy. Since the Waisters have
"accidentally" exterminated every race they've previously
encountered, while humanity managed to fight, psychoanalyze, and bluff its way
out of this fate, the Waisters seem to regard the human notion of
"Peace" as revolutionary and ingenious, and to view the humans
themselves with a kind of patient, almost mystical awe.
In
a distant region of the galaxy hidden from view, for millions of years a stain
of darkness has been spreading: the Blue Star Plague. Stars thus afflicted begin to turn blue, and then to dim, until
finally they become completely invisible, radiating only in the infra-red. The pattern of spectum loss is consistent
with a light source being submerged in liquid water, the implication being that
these stars are somehoe acquiring a spherical "shell" of liquid some
20 kilometers thick. The physical scope
of such a process is unimaginable -- for humans or Waisters it would require
the dedication of trillions of individuals for hundreds of centuries -- and yet
the Blue Star Plague spreads quickly, consuming individual stars in a decade or
two, and leaping across the gulf between stars at around .05C, a substantial
fraction of the speed of light. Once
thought to be a single infestation, the penomenon turns out to be spreading
from several independent sources throughout the galaxy, and will reach human-
and Waister-occupied space within the (artificially extended) lifetimes of many
or most of the people currently alive.
The
Waisters fear that the (supposed) intelligent beings causing the Blue Star
Plague must be too strong and too numerous to be defeated, and they seem to
expect that if they present their problem to the human representatives at
Sirius Gate, they'll be told what to do.
When they find this isn't so, a protracted diplomatic mission
ensues. The catch? The Waisters can't seem to comprehend that
humans use more than one language, and will only attempt to speak or understand
the dead language called "Standard," which was in widespread use at
the time of their invasion. Too, they
seem distrustful of the nanotech enhancements most of humanity now employs --
implicit in their actions is the certainty that such modified humans must be
the servants or "implements" of the original strains, and no amount
of dialogue seems able to convince them otherwise.
The
loose interstellar government known as The Suzerainty of the Human Spaces has
therefore decreed that all "Base Human" speakers of Standard,
regardless of their backgrounds or culture, must be transported to Sirius Gate
for resettlement, with the intent that they become embassadors, teachers, and
above all, economic negotiators; humanity, while reviling direct contact with
the Waisters themselves, desperately wants access to their superadvanced
technology and scientific understanding.
Unfortunately, prying these secrets loose seems all but impossible, not
because the Waisters are unwilling but because they seem unable to communicate
anything but the most basic concepts to their human counterparts.
At
the opening of our story, some 500 years after the Waisters' arrival at Sirius
Gate, 2500 years after their sterilization of the same star system (the first
of three thus treated during their invasion), and approximately 3900 years
after the present (21st century) era, the only real progress in Blue Star
Plague investigation has been a swarm of automated probes which will not reach
their destination for several centuries more.
At the present, Sirius Gate is occupied by three major factions:
First
are the Waisters themselves, who have dismantled their starship and built a
sort of space station in close orbit around the blue-giant star Aye of this
double-sunnned system, occupied by several hundred of their number. Inhumanly patient, they seem prepared to
remain at Sirius Gate indefinitely, despite their lack of progress in obtaining
a "to do" list regarding the Blue Star Plague.
Second
are the Gate colonists, a.k.a. Gateans, a.k.a. Aggressors, who occupy several
of the "Lesser Worlds" (asteroids) orbiting Aye at greater
distance. These people are among the
biomodified members of the galaxy's "Mode Human" population, in this
case modified for the specific purpose of imitating -- and thereby communicating
with -- Waisters. While mostly human in
appearance, they are morphologically specialized by function, and fall
naturally into Waisterlike organizational heirarchies, employing the Waister
tongue as their own genetically-coded native language. Since the Waisters don't seem overly
interested in this themselves, the Gateans are generally regarded as a failed
experiment. Many Gateans accept this
readily enough, finding new, self-derived purpose in their existence (e.g., as
willing advisors to humanity regarding Waister psychology), but others are
bitterly resentful of both the Base Humans and the Waisters for shunting them
into a subordinate role, when they had fancied themselves somewhere between
saviors and conquerors to both species.
Third
are the Base Humans. Relocated -- often
unwillingly -- to Sirius Gate, this heterogeneous population of over three
million consists of cryostasis refugees from bygone eras, members of obscure
naturalist cults, and citizens of poor, backward societies from four different
star systems. Because they are
minimally biomodified and often grew up without advanced medical care, there is
also a small but important incidence of dwarfism, autism, mental retardation,
and other genetic and environmental afflictions long unknown in the rest of
humanity.
Since
all three factions are -- barring accidents -- physically immortal, there is on
the one hand little sense of urgency about resolving their differences. On the other hand, though, a strong sense
pervades Sirius Gate that what they're doing will prove very important in the
long run. Since most of them will still
be here in the long run, people do tend to weigh the long-term consequences of
their actions, and to worry about real but distant threats such as the Blue
Star Plague. Political and economic
pressure from the distant Suzerainty help to reinforce these feelings.
PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT:
Before
the Waisters' return, Humanity had reoccupied the three star systems they had
sterilized, and expanded to two others, in the direction opposite the Waister
empire. This seige-mentality expansion
has continued: in the 500 years since then, another three systems have been
colonized, in the directions furthest from both the Waisters and the Blue Star
Plague. These colonies are accutely
conscious of their role as "preservation and escape points;" should
humanity come under attack again, these are the regions that will have the most
warning.
The
systems of Sirius Gate and Lande serve just the opposite role: as buffer
systems against the Waisters and Blue Star Plague, respectively. Lande's history is particularly harsh, since
it is not only the first system likely to be subsumed by the distant Blue Star
Plague, but was also razed by the Waisters during their long-ago invasion. However, Sirius Gate is the only system in
which the Waisters are permitted -- or seemingly interested in visiting -- and
this unique role gives the system a very real, contemporary importance in
interstellar affairs.
Most
of the Base Humans resettled at Sirius Gate live -- to their eternal distress
-- on the surface of a gas giant planet called Creta, from which the Waisters
-- for obscure purposes of their own -- have blasted most of the hydrogen and
helium, leaving behind a massive core of rock and metal surrounded by an
atmosphere which is marginally breatheable by both humans and Waisters (though
healthy for neither), but which is ultra-dense. The planet's fierce gravity is thus compensated for by its
crushing atmosphere, in which substances like concrete and human flesh are
buoyant enough to hold their shape and structural integrity, albeit
uncomfortably. A number of plant and
animal species of unknown origin have also been loosed on the planet, resulting
in a riotous and enigmatic ecosystem, but the Base Humans lead a gloomy,
deep-sea existence in depressions shielded from the slow but deadly planetary
winds.
For
those humans constitutionally incapable of withstanding the high gravity,
pressure, and halogen levels of Creta, habitable domes have been erected on the
airless, icy surface of Anafi, one of the planet's two moons. Curiously, lifeforms have been introduced to
Anafi as well, aquatic species adapted to the vast ocean beneath the moon's icy
crust. Five such ecosystems are known
elsewhere in the Suzerainty of the Human Spaces, and this one created by the
Waisters is quickly growing to resemble those others in key respects.
No
one knows why the Waisters have created these environments. No one knows much of anything about the
Waisters.
IMPORTANT
CHARACTERS:
Vadim
Grigorivot Kurosov -- Son of Malyene Andreivne Kurosov'e, Sirius Gate's first
Overdirector. A victim of involuntary
cryostasis, twice frozen out of the eras that created him, Vadim was born ten
years before the Wasiter destruction of the human civillization at Sirius, and
is now among the oldest members of the Base Human society established
there. He has also spent many
subjective years in virtual environments, so that his mental and chronological
ages are both far ahead of his physical age.
Katrine
Va -- A Base Human structural engineer residing on Creta, Katrine descends from
members of a deeply religious naturalist cult in the Epsilon Eridani star
system, but remains stubbornly agnostic herself. She is an expert on Creta's weather patterns and their effects on
materials and structures. At various
points in the story, her running commentary helps to illuminate the dangers of
the Cretan environment, and the ingenious adaptations of the lifeforms on its
wild surface. Upon meeting Vadim
Kurosov, she is impressed with his age, his heritage, and his legacy as a "near-native"
of Sirius.
Xiaoa
Chen -- An intelligent but autistic man, now entering his third century of
life, Chen is a menial laborer in the Cretan city of Kolger Depression. Autism being fundamentally a developmental
disorder, Chen has had over twenty decades to develop coping mechanisms for
getting along with his fellow humans, so that while he is markedly eccentric,
it isn't immediately apparent just what is wrong with him. He is exceedingly good with numbers,
puzzles, and machinery.
Min
Chen -- The daughter of Xiaoa Chen by an autistic woman now deceased, Min is
also autistic, and at 26 years of age does not possess anything like the coping
and masking abilities of her father.
She is explosively violent, barely able to speak, and given to long
periods of total inactivity.
Kenneth
Jonson -- A virtual personality, recorded for posterity after helping to save
the human race from the Waister onslaught, Jonson is a longtime veteran of both
combat and diplomacy, and a great historical figure throughout the Suzerainty. He was among the first humans to grasp the
fundamental differences between human and Waister modes of thought, and remains
a popular oracle for advice in such matters.
Jonson himself is not overly happy with this arrangement, wishing for a
"genuine community" of virtual personalities, rather than the
fleeting moments of existence such entities have traditionally been restricted
to.
Link
15 -- A Gatean of the "drone" morphological class, one of the only
two classes able to survive the harsh environment of Creta, Link has been
assigned indefinitely to liaison duties in Kolger Depression. He accepts this fate with good humor,
knowing that this, too, shall pass, and that the experience may prove valuable
in the long, long life he anticipates.
As a "Mode Human," he is much more comfortable with the idea
of physical importality than any of the Base Humans, who grew up mortal.
Edge
4 -- Another "drone" Gatean, who does not accept his work assignments
or his people's co-option, Edge is a cautious but deeply angry revolutionary
whose agitation becomes increasingly apparent (and important) as the story
progresses.
Others!!
PLOT
SUMMARY:
Prologue: Some sort of document or report, 2-3 pages
long, which helps to establish the temporal, cultural, and spatial gulfs that
separate our story from both 21st century Earth and from the rich Base Human
and Mode Human history of the 41 intervening centuries. Possibly, it will concern the swarm of
automated probes the humans and Waisters have sent off toward the Blue Star
Plague.
Part
One: After completing his
third fruitless 5-year stint with the Ministry of Contact out in the Lesser
Worlds, Vadim returns to the city of Kolger Depression on the surface of Creta,
along with the Gatean known as Link 15.
Settling back into life at Kolger Depression, he comes to know the
autistic man Xiaoa Chen, is surprised to learn of his affliction, and is even
more surprised, upon meeting Chen's daughter Min, to learn that his condition
was once as deeply pathological as hers.
On a submarine-like
"flight" to a neurological institute in Glim Depression, some
uncharacteristically wild turbulence causes the vehicle to crash, and Chen,
Vadim, Katrine, Link, and one or two cannon fodder wind up stranded together in
the wilderness, forced to make the perilous overland journey back to Kolger
Depression, facing toxic rains, freezing downdrafts, hostile lifeforms, and
other perils. Most of the way back,
they are aided by a Waister, apparently living wild on the surface of the
planet. As enigmatically as it arrives,
the alien leaves them again once they are safe.
Part
Two: Safely back in Kolger
depression, Vadim, having connected Chen's compensated autism with certain
aspects of Waister behavior, is further surprised when a group of Waisters comes
to Kolger Depression to obtain information from the humans and Gateans who
crashed. Vadim helps Chen to take an
active role in these communications, and several minor breakthroughs occur
quickly thereafter, including discovery of a Waister obsession for aquatic
creatures which "know no shore."
However, the increasingly
turbulent disruptions of Creta's thick atmosphere, which turn out to be the
result of a sophisticated Gatean sabotage campaign aimed at forcing the Base
Humans offworld and into scattered Gatean habitats, suddenly start getting out
of hand. The domes and low towers, all
the aboveground structures of Kolger Depression, are collapsing as the thick,
slow winds dip down like ocean currents into the valley, with much death and
mayhem resulting.
Part
Three: The Gang flees to
the moon, Anafi, to escape the mayhem below and bring the Waister envoys to
safety in a domed city known, ironically, as Troublefree. Alas, trouble has followed them here. For some damn reason I haven't figured out yet,
Our Heroes have to pile into an ice-borer submarine and flee to the depths of
Anafi's ocean, where they encounter strange life forms which the Waisters admit
to having placed there. "Aquatica
without shores," they call the creatures; the idea seems to disturb them
greatly.
Finally, all the elements come
together: with Vadim's Base Humanity and lifelong familiarity with Waisters, Chen's
autism, Link 15's fluency with Waister language and emotions, and the superfast
thoughts and age-old wisdom of virtual personnae like Ken Jonson, a substantive
discussion with the Waister envoys finally takes place. The Waisters repeat their claim that the gas
giant and its moon are "gifts" for humanity, and also
"teachers."
They explain a bit about their
history, about the "cairn builders" (stone age species) and
"stupidlings" (primitive spacefarers) they've encountered, the
"core voices" and "song echoes" they have heard from time
to time. However, in all the star
systems they've traveled to or examined remotely, the subglacial oceans of gas
giant moons are by far the most common harbors of life. They estimate that some 95% of life-bearing
worlds are of this type, most containing species which reproduce quickly and
compete savagely, and yet of the ~10 more-than-stone-age species the Waisters
have known in their multimillion-year history, none have come from icy moons.
At this point, the clarity of
communication seems to reach another plateau, with the Waisters clearly trying
to convey some additional points, but being largely unable to. Through hard work and cleverness, though,
the humans are able to deduce:
(A) That the Waisters believe
The Blue Star Plague to be the work of a species that originated on an icy
moon.
(B) That the Waisters believe a
large, fundamental barrier exists between human and Waister understanding of
the universe, which humanity may need tens or hundreds of centuries to
"tunnel" across, unless assisted.
And such assistance is difficult for many reasons...
(C) That an equally large gap
probably separates the Blue Star Plague from the Waisters, else its people
would never have arrived at starflight and planetary engineering
technologies. Waister technology, like
human, could not have developed -- or even been conceived -- in such a cold,
dark, watery environment, ergo the Blue Star Plague must have tunneled straight
across both conceptual barriers to some absurdly advanced understanding of the
universe's underpinnings. And yet, no
signal from the Waisters has ever brought the slightest reaction from
them. The implications are, to say the
least, disturbing: the species appears to be both massively intelligent and
deeply autistic, possibly lacking even the self-awareness that characterizes
all other known intelligences and many higher animals.
(D) That the Waisters' creation
of Creta and Anafi was in fact intended as a sort of visceral communication of
concepts the Waisters could not express across the verbal, cultural, and
neurological gulfs separating them from humanity. The worlds serve, in effect, as a warning: that even such humanly
impossible engineering feats pale in comparison to the Blue Star Plague, and
that humble creatures such as the mindless, fast-reproducing tubeworms of Anafi
are in fact capable of taking over the galaxy, of remaking it in their
image. The human idea of
"arming" against this "invasion" is absurd -- even after 25
centuries of progress, humans are still no match even for the Waisters.
So anyway, the danger above Our
Heroes recedes, the submarine is able to surface, and the threads dealing with
Mode Human / Base Human conflict are resolved.
Epilogue: Humans and Waisters have agreed
to build a starship together, with separate habitats for each, and common areas
which both may inhabit for a time.
During construction, it is hoped that the humans will come to understand
some of the physical principles involved, but the project's primary goal is to
send a delegation, consisting of Base and Mode humans, autistic humans,
Waisters, virtual personalities, and completely nonsentient Artificial
Intelligences, in the hopes that some combination of these talents and outlooks
will prove useful in making contact with the Blue Star Plague, if such a thing
is even possible. And if such contact
is not possible, they can at least probe for weaknesses, transmitting back the
information against the day when the Plagues expansion brings it into direct
contact with human and Waister civillizations.
Either way, of course, the travelers' current lives are forfeit: even if all goes spectacularly well, they
will not return to Sirius Gate for over a hundred thousand years...